Gearing up for Game 4: Sharks don’t want history to repeat — plus more on Heatley, Thornton and the Coutures’ passports

DETROIT — In the past, Todd McLellan has given his team the day off on the road between Games 3 and 4 of a playoff series. Sometimes the skates are optional.

Not today.

And the players themselves who wanted to be out there.

“At this time of year we always consult with the players,” coach Todd McLellan said. “We all agreed today would be a good day for all of us to get out there.”

Not that it was a heavy workout.

“By no means were we stressed as far as putting them through drills,” McLellan said. “We cleaned the legs out and refreshed them.”

The big challenge between now and the next faceoff that matters, of course, is avoiding a repeat of what happened in Game 4 a year ago. And that challenge is of the mental variety.

McLellan and his players have said since they learned Detroit would be their second-round opponent that this year was different than last year when the Sharks eliminated the Red Wings in five games.

But so far this year has been exactly like last year — three San Jose victories, all by one goal. OK, maybe not exactly as this year two of the games have gone to overtime while it was only one in 2010. But you get the idea.

Now, of course, it’s in the Sharks best interest NOT to let the pattern continue. Last year, the Sharks had it handed to them, a 7-1 loss that saw Detroit up 5-0 before the first period ended.

“It’s almost déjà vu-like and I know I want to separate last year from this year, but I believe we learned a very valuable lesson last year in Game 4,” McLellan said. “We have to show some growth as far as responding better than we did last time.”

The coach said he didn’t exactly spell it out, how Johan Franzen exploded for a natural hat trick in a little more than three minutes, how things only got worse after that.

“We’ve already talked about our approach to Game 4,” he said. “We didn’t necessarily talk about last year specifically. We just talked that we’ve been in this situation before and we should have learned some lessons and we should show some signs of growth tomorrow.”

Players probably didn’t need to hear the details. They have good memories.

‘I don’t like to go back to the past, but I think Game 4 is one of those times where you do want to look at the past,” defenseman Dan Boyle said. “We got blown out in Game 4 not because I think we went out and didn’t care or were too loose.

“It’s just percentages,” he continued. “If you give 100 percent every night and then you go out and give 90 – which is what I think happened last year — it’s that margin of error.”

*****On the Detroit side, they were saying all the expected things about winning one game and taking things from there, about how all the games have been close.

But their challenge is also a mental one that requires them to ignore the fact that only three teams in NHL history have come back from where the Red Wings now stand to win a series.

In the past, players have talked about the need for selective amnesia in that kind of situation. Mike Babcock says it’s all about staying positive.

“That’s how I live my life,” he said. “That’s how I do with my family, that’s what I do every day. I just think that I’m going to disarm the bomb, I’ve always thought that. That’s how a coach thinks.

“Whether that’s selective memory, whether that’s being hard-headed, whether that’ s just not being that smart, whatever you want to call it, I’m just a believer. I believe if you approach life that way, the positives outlast the downs.”

Speaking of staying positive from the Detroit perspective, the fact that it was only a year ago that the Philadelphia Flyers became that third NHL team to win a series after starting 0-3 was not lost on either team.

“We’re certainly aware of it and we certainly have enough respect for our opponent to know that if there’s a team that can do it, it would be Detroit,” McLellan said. “That should help us prepare.”

*****Dany Heatley says that monster hit by Niklas Kronwall in the first period of Game 3 mostly just knocked the wind out of him. But because his head did hit the board as he fell to the ice, he did go through the required protocol whenever a concussion may have occurred.

“Passed the test with flying colors,” he said today. That, I guess, was obvious by the fact he only missed two shifts.

Heatley ended up blocking a Kronwall shot in overtime, but the Sharks forward didn’t exactly look at that as revenge.

“I had to block that. I let him get by me in the first place to create that play,” Heatley said. “But there’s not really any time for revenge now. There’s going to be big hits from both sides and I’ve just got to get up and keep playing.”

*****Joe Thornton has scored a point in four of San Jose’s five overtime goals this post-season — scoring the clinching goal against Los Angeles, assisting on three others.

McLellan was asked if this should go along way toward erasing the image of Thornton as a laid-back player who lacks the intensity to star in the playoffs.

First, the coach questioned the accuracy of outside impressions.

“When he gets a microphone in front of him, he has a tendency not to give you guys a whole lot. He’s smiling, he’s happy and away he goes,” the coach said.

“But every now and then we should hide a camera in the locker room when he’s not very pleased with himself or his teammates or what’s going on,” McLellan continued. “He’s the first one to step up and I think he’s shown growth as an individual and a leader and with his play.

“He’s not offensive Jumbo, he’s complete Jumbo now. We’re excited about that and we still think he has a long way to go, starting with tomorrow’s game.”

*****The Coutures got their new passports and Logan’s parents will be here for Game 4 on Friday night.

David Pollak

David Pollak has been following the NHL forever and at the Mercury News as an editor or reporter since 1987. For almost a decade he wrote about the Sharks as the paper's Fan in the Stands before joining the sports department in 2001. He became the Sharks beat writer before the 2007-08 season and began this blog at that time. You can also follow him on Twitter at @PollakOnSharks.

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I expected more would be made of the Sharks winning game 3, with the exact same score, the exact same way, one year later with a tagline “History repeats itself”. Don’ get me wrong, the Setoguchi “History Will Be Made” commercial is really good, but it would have been nice to see an acknowledgment of the coincidence that the outcome of game 3 was so similar.

I was happy to see that someone was thinking the same thing I was. I wish I could claim this parody, but it’s not mine, this very nicely done parody of the “History Will Be Made” commercial was done by Sharkdude09.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTBjQhNEKyQ

Jimmy the Snowman

re: #47 Rose – Nice, thanks for posting the link. I like the Shark fin on the roof though I don’t know how it got there. 😉

(it looks extra good because the high temp here today was a balmy 91)

Snow Shovel

Whoever made that pic should raise their hand so we can thank you for a job well done.

Snow Shovel

Ancient Mariner (WI JP) hope you see the game on Friday. And have a great trip fishing this week-end. Be sure to tell us about it Monday. I fished as a kid (lived by a lake) and was absolutely horrible at it.

TopCat

I like our chance tomorrow. We learned from last year, and we are actually due for an offensive explosion, which we have not had. Howard is due to explode as well. This game could go either way, but if we get up a couple of goals early, we might smell blood. Tomorrow Detroit is likely to take more offensive chances, so hopefully we can convert some odd man breaks. I sure would like the team to get some rest time (meanwhile, go Nashville! please extend that series out).

JB

I’m cheering for Nashville too. If for no other reason than DP and the rest of the press corps would enjoy some time (let’s say 2 games worth) in Nashville.

Couture’s parents will be on hand to see him score. At least once. (If he’s running low on celebrations, maybe P.K. Subban could loan him one he didn’t get to use.)

Snow Shovel: “I fished as a kid (lived by a lake) and was absolutely horrible at it.”
You must have been because you didn’t even lie about how good you are–that’s the first thing you’re supposed to learn, followed by lying about fish quantity and size. 😉

Snow Shovel

Well, if anyone had to depend upon me fishing they would have starved in the shortest time possible. But let me tell you about one that got away, true story of course…

“The” Ancient Mariner

Thanks, Rose. I now have a new screen saver.

SS, fishing was great and as usual, I caught the most and the biggest.

G>=^((;>SDI!

BUMBASS

Interresting that the same seeds are the playing in both conferences, with opposite results. 1 plays 5, and 2 plays 3.

In the East the underdogs are dominating, in the West the favorites are dominating.

(1) WSH 0 (5) TB 4
(1) VAN 3 (5) NAS 1

(2) PHI 0 (3) BOS 3
(2) SJ 3 (3) DET 0

GDub

This is a very good article. One of my favorite lines:

“The Sharks have become an arduous foe, and don’t be fooled — the Red Wings aren’t beating the Red Wings. It just looks that way because the Sharks are beating the Red Wings the way the Red Wings beat teams for years.”

If I’m not mistaken, the Ian White deal was a 3M/1 year deal. One year deals for qualified players will usually cost a bit more – because there isn’t any term. And also, it was to stay in Calgary?? — a little dif than Toronto.

On that line of speculation, I could see an Ian White deal from some team, including the Sharks, 8M over 3 yrs. The guy is still young (26 or 27).

Long Time No Cup

Dear Mr. Shovel,

No one is bad at fishing. Some are bad at catching, but none is bad at fishing.

Did you watch the game last night? Vancouver is extremely beatable. They play way too fancy. Our physical play will grind them into dust. I was laughing as they were unable to convert several pp opportunites that as easy as they come. I remember one specifically where there was a wide open man at the side of an open net and theguy at the point feeds into a d-man rather than his open man. Either the sharks or wings would make easy work of either of these two. If the world was fair, we would be playing the wing in the western finals.

dan

Oh and did you see that brilliant Vancouver play where the dman left a forward all alone in front of his net screening Lu and the guy scores two seconds later? I’m pretty sure the dman was running off to chase a car and knock over some garbage cans. Bush league…

Tom

It seems to me that if you’re going to the Detroit coverage, you lose your right to complain about trolls.

Memo to SnowShovel, et al: there’s a fine line between fishing and standing on the shore like an idiot.

Just kidding.

On an actual hockey opinion, I thought Howard pulled a Nabby in game 3, i.e., letting in softees – Seto’s mis-fire was very stoppable, and Seto’s winner was also. Although to me Seto’s game winner speaks to the superiority of a quick wrister over winding up for a slapper. And I say that as one who feels Heater should be on left point on power plays because he’s got a cannon of a slapper.

Pilkington

Oh and did you see that brilliant Vancouver play where the dman left a forward all alone in front of his net screening Lu and the guy scores two seconds later? I’m pretty sure the dman was running off to chase a car and knock over some garbage cans. Bush league…

————————————————————————————-

I think that was former Shark Ehrhoff who let Ward stay right in front of Lou.

dan

Watch the first video on this page at the 1:30 mark. The Vancouver adman leaves the Nashville forward all alone in front of Lu! I’m pretty sure they’re going to use this video to teach five year holds. “Okay little Jimmy, now don’t leave the other teams player in front of your net because they might score, okay?”

A little love for two blue liners who I think are playing great hockey this post season. Vlassic and Demers, we are not talking about them much… And that is not a bad thing. Keep up the good work boyz!

Is it 4pm yet…?

SJGR8WHITE

I don’t usually post but it’s not VAN I’m worried about. It’s the guys in those black and white stripes who let VAN get away with murder. I’ve seen J Tootoo get corked screwed (I think that’s what Drew called it) and other various penalties that people say, “It’s Playoff Hockey.” I get that and have become accustomed to this phrase over the years but it should go both ways. IMHO it hasn’t and that the Preds are getting robbed. Jus one mo games boys!!! I appreciate to all that post here even though i don’t participate I spend a lot of time reading everyones comments!!! Have a great day and an awesome weekend!!!
LGSDI

Rose

Gooood Morning Sharks fans!

Is it 4 yet??!

GOOOO SHARKS!!!!!

Pilkington

Modano is a scratch tonight.

1SHXFAN

Oh the weather inside is frightful,
But the Sharks are so delightful,
and since Howard is in goal,
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

It doesn’t show signs of stopping,
The Sharks will keep the pucks a popping,
the lights are turned way down low,
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

When we finally get the Cup,
they will know Sharks never give up!
And if you’ll really hold on tight,
way to go Sharks keep up the fight.

The Wings fire is slowly dying
and, the Stanley Cup, we’ll be eying,
But as long as you love The Sharks so,
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow

GO SHARKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

vonmerpf

dan -> “I’m pretty sure the dman was running off to chase a car and knock over some garbage cans.”

LOL! Dude, you just made my morning.

It’s Friday, the sun is shining, it’s bagel day here at work and Sharks have a really good shot at sweeping the redwings out of the playoffs. Woot!

GO SHARKS!

dan

Happy to oblige

puckace

1SHXFAN Well done! I like.

Rose That picture of Pavelski snowblowing Howard is priceless.

Very entertaining at WTC lately.

GSGDI!

gbs417

I still cant believe Modano is a scratch. Not that I am complaining, but if you’ve gone down 3-0 wouldnt you find room for him? Maybe he has an injury…

I’m going to the Giants game tonight, does that make me less of a SJS fan? It was a tough choice, but since baseball is slow enough to compile and compute all of those stats it will be slow enough to follow the Sharks

Big D

THE Red Wings fan AND THE LORD

A Red Wings fan wanted to go ice fishing. He had seen many books on the subject, and finally getting all the necessary tools together, the Red Wings fan made for the ice.

After positioning his comfy little Red Wings footstool, he started to make a circular cut in the ice. Suddenly, from the sky, a voice boomed,

“THERE ARE NO FISH UNDER THE ICE.”

Startled, the Red Wings fan moved further down the ice, poured a thermos of cappuccino, and began to cut yet another hole. Again from the heavens the voice bellowed,

“THERE ARE NO FISH UNDER THE ICE.”

The Red Wings fan, now worried, moved away, clear down to the opposite end of the ice. He set up his comfy little Red Wings stool once more and tried again to cut his hole.

The voice came once more,

“THERE ARE NO FISH UNDER THE ICE.”

The Red Wings fan stopped, looked skyward, and said,
“IS THAT YOU LORD?”

The voice replied,

“No, this is the manager of the hockey rink.”

SCSharksFan

BigD… that’s funny… I almost posted the same joke… I received it today from another Sharks fan… but it was a blonde instead of a Wings fan… your version is better…
😉

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